Hey Kieran,

Hope you and Eveline made it back to Ireland in one piece...

I think you're right. AOR has returned - just in a different look. And that's exactly why most current AOR/MHR bands won't get anywhere until the labels and bands start to market their product differently. Most people I work with are in their early twenties. Whenever I show them one of my newly purchased CD's, they're laughing off their asses because of those, and I quote, "horribly 80's looking CD covers". Fact is, most young people buy just as much with their eyes as they do with their ears. And being in advertising, I know that it is not that expensive to get a decent graphic artist who can produce a decent looking cover. Frankly, most of what's being inserted in jewel cases from the minors these days looks like crap - poor quality and hideous designs that show absolutely no artistic value at all. One of our interns (a 19 year old student) does really cool covers for my samplers. It only takes him a couple of hours max. - and that stuff looks a million times better, believe me. Same with how most bands look. Personally, I don't care how one dresses on or off stage. But the reality is, it's no longer 1984. I'm not suggesting for bands to look like Korn or the Backstreet Boys. But why can't they go with the times and get a more contemporary look? I think the majors will take notice again very quickly once a band looks "sellable". And that in turn will get radio on the bandwagon as well. After all, we all know that is the labels that have quite a bit of saying what's being played on the radio (good old payola).

Peter